596 
Ointment  of  Salicylic  Acid. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm» 
Nov.,  1884. 
a  work  which  is  so  comprehensive,  and  which  necessarily  exerts  so 
great  an  influence  on  the  therapeutics  of  the  day,  as  the  national 
Pharmacopoeia,  some  larger  constituency  than  two  pharmacists  super- 
vised by  five  general  physicians  should  be  consulted. 
Ointments,  although  an  important  item  in  a  pharmacopoeia,  are  in 
their  details  somewhat  on  the  outskirts  of  general  medicine ;  Pagen- 
stecher's  ointment,  at  the  least,  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  British  Pharma- 
copoeia. It  is  used  all  over  the  world,  but  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  the 
red  oxide  ointment  figured  still  as  before  nine  years  after  the  yellow 
had  come  into  general  preference  and  stands  still  so  fifteen  years  after. 
Some  advantage  for  the  future  certainly  might  be  gained  by  the  help 
of  those  who  by  cultivating  limited  departments  of  medicine  have  ac- 
quired something  of  a  larger  acquaintance  than  is  perhaps  common  of 
particular  classes  of  remedies;  but  even  waiving  that,  the  absolute  ex- 
clusion of  surgeons,  and  one  may  even  add  of  obstetric  practitioners, 
from  the  legislative  parliament  of  authors  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  is 
really  quite  an  anomaly  in  the  present  day,  as  if  surgeons  were  now-a- 
days  armed  only  with  knives,  or  obstetricians  only  with  forceps  and 
binders.  What,  it  may  be  asked,  do  physicians  know  (officially)  of 
the  antiseptic  surgical  method,  or  of  diseases  of  the  eye,  or  of  stone  in 
the  bladder,  or  of  the  remedies  external  or  internal  for  lesions  of  the 
ear?  At  the  risk  of  censure,  I  will  imagine  that  their  knowledge  is 
not  quite  thorough  ;  but  yet  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  understood  on  every 
side  to  be  the  most  profound  attainable  exposition  of  all  remedies  that 
can  be  employed  in  the  relief  of  bodily  distress  of  any  kind. — Phar. 
Jour-  and  Trans.,  October  11,  1884,  p.  281. 
Influence  of  Salicylic  acid  on  alcoholic  fermentation.— 
The  experiments  of  G.  Heinzelmann  (Bied.  Centr.,  1883,  503)  showthat 
the  vitality  of  yeast  is  completely  destroyed  by  the  presence  of  0*15 
gram  of  salicylic  acid  per  400  cc.  of  sugar  solution,  whilst  the  addition  of 
0*01  per  cent,  favors  its  greatest  activity,  and  although  the  yeast  plant 
does  not  propagate,  nevertheless  the  cells  developed  in  the  presence  of 
salicylic  acid  are  stronger  and  larger  than  those  produced  in  a  solution 
free  from  that  acid.  Moreover  under  similar  circumstances  the  pro- 
duction of  alcohol  in  a  given  time  is  greater.  The  addition  of  0*1 
gram  of  salicylic  acid  per  litre  of  "  mashing "  favors  fermentation, 
especially  with  pure  sugar  solutions. — Jour.  Chem.  Soc. 
